Chapter 23 #2
“Fully recovered and yes, everything’s fine. Better than ever, actually, though we haven’t found…” He swallowed, clearly wondering if he should mention the whole ordeal or not.
“The bad guys,” she supplied.
“Right. The bad guys.” He tugged at his beard. “How’s Theo doing? I heard he got an A on his geometry test.”
“Amy still keeping an eye on him for you?”
He flushed. “No, I haven’t talked to her in weeks. Theo emailed me. He’s excited about the scholarship we’ve got set up for Gladwins who get into college. Wants me to know he’s getting top grades.”
“He is. And I’m grateful for the extra incentive.”
“Anything to help.” Then he stood there in the doorway, hunched and uncomfortable. An evil part of her wanted to make him stand there longer, punishment for how tortured she’d felt earlier. But a larger part wanted him in her life, so she was quick to pull out a stool for him.
“Come on in, Carl. Take a load off. I heard you’ve been shot a few dozen times. Probably takes its toll and you could use a rest.”
“I’m not decrepit yet,” he shot back. But he did take a few steps into her workroom and then carefully settled down on a stool.
“Touchy, touchy alpha,” she teased, hoping they could recover their earlier sense of banter. More than anything else, she missed their easy communication.
He snorted. “You have no idea. Since everyone is suddenly convinced of my grizzly power, I’ve had nursing from women throughout the state. They just show up to ‘help me get back on my feet.’ Like I’m in a wheelchair or something.”
Was that why he hadn’t contacted her? Because more eligible shifter women were claiming his attention? The idea made her hands clench as she imagined tossing each hussy across the border. The United States/Mexico border.
“I’ve been shoving them at Alan, hoping he’ll look at someone other than Tonya.”
Well, that thought brightened her mood considerably. “Is it working?”
Carl shrugged. “Not that I can see. I think he’s given up on the shifter community altogether. He probably wants a nice human girl to warm him at night.”
Oh. Didn’t that just draw the line clear and dark between shifters and humans?
All her hopes started to whither inside her.
With a sigh, she looked back at her half-finished cake but didn’t move to start working again.
“Is there something you wanted, Carl?” Given the briefcase, there could be all sorts of police, legal, or other crap to deal with, none of it remotely interesting to her.
“Y-yeah. There is.”
She looked up. Stammering wasn’t his usual style. A bolt of alarm shot through her and the words tumbled out of her before she could stop and think. “Is Theo in danger? Are they coming back? What aren’t you telling me?”
He reached out, his large palm stroking her forearm in a gentle press. “Theo’s fine. I’ve got people nearby if needed, but honestly he’s learning to use his shifter senses. He won’t be taken easily ever again.”
She nodded. That’s what she told herself every night when she woke up sweating with terror. “I’d still feel better if we were closer to the main fold,” she grumbled.
He jolted, his hand squeezing then lifting off her to hover uncertainly an inch above her arm. “You’d consider that?”
“Of course I’d consider that,” she snapped, annoyed at him for being so thick-headed.
“Theo has to learn about his father’s family,” she said.
“Sure, he’s already planning on spending the entire summer up there, but I’d be crazy not to consider moving to Gladwin permanently.
He says he feels the draw even now and wants to roam around in a forest. As a bear.
That isn’t exactly safe in Kalamazoo. So of course I’m thinking about moving.
You’ve got to have a sane way of doing that up there. ”
“We did. My mom used to organize monthly bear parties. Kind of like big picnics that are managed for everyone’s safety. We ought to do those again.”
She looked at him. That almost sounded like fun. “Yeah, you should.”
“I will. And you and Theo would be welcome. Only a small percentage shift. It’s a time for the whole community to get together. And I’d really like it if you were there.”
She studied his face. He appeared earnest. More than that, she thought she saw a quiet yearning in his eyes. An echo of the desperation she’d once seen in his bear’s eyes. Lonely hunger held back for her sake.
It was the “held back” that pissed her off.
Damn it, she was done with sitting on tenterhooks.
She was tired of waiting for him to get off his ass.
He’d shown her that she could handle herself in front of motorcycle riding killers and mad scientists.
She’d be damned if she let one stupid bear alpha make her insane.
“Damn it, Carl, I wish you’d just get to the point. Why are you here?”
His eyes widened and he fumbled on his stool. Not surprising, given that his seat was narrow and half covered in flour. But she hadn’t expected her frustrated question to have him falling onto the floor.
Her first thought was that he was having a spasm. Some sort of carryover from the surgery or maybe lead poisoning from the bullet that had been hanging out inside him. But while she was scrambling for her phone to call 911, he grabbed hold of her wrist and held her in place.
“Becca—” he began, but she talked right over him.
“Take deep breaths. I’m right here with you. You’ll be fine. Stacy, call an ambulance!”
“Don’t call, Stacy. I’m fine!” he shouted as he rearranged himself on the floor. He ended up on one knee while he pulled something out of his suit jacket with one hand. His other hand was firmly gripped around her wrist.
“Where does it hurt?” she asked. “Are they sure they got all the bullets out? Maybe they missed one.”
“I’m fine! Damn it, Becca, shut up!”
She pulled back, but he didn’t let her move far. “What’s going on?”
“I’m trying to tell you why I’m here.”
“But you fell down!”
“I went onto one knee! I’m trying to propose!”
It took her three replays in her brain before the words finally shifted into meaning.
It helped that he flipped open a ring box to show her a diamond ring fashioned in an odd setting.
It was like a Claddagh, but instead of two hands gripping a heart, one clawed paw and one human hand clasped a heart-shaped diamond beneath a crown of gold.
“Oh my God,” she whispered.
“This ring has been worn by all Maximas for generations.”
“It’s beautiful,” she murmured.
He stretched it closer to her. “Becca Weitz, I can’t live without you.
I love you. Will you marry me and live in Gladstone with me forever?
I know it’s a lot to ask. That’s why I took so long.
I wanted you to remember your life here, to know what you’d have to give up.
I could stop being Max if you want, but I’d rather not.
Not if you think you might be able to stand it out in the country.
Or at least give it a try. I want you with me there.
I want to wake up beside you every morning.
I want our children raised next to the forest I love.
I want to be with you when I really am decrepit and have to hand over the leadership to someone I trust. Will do you give it a try, Becca? Will you marry me?”
She stared at him, her eyes misting with tears. Of all the things she’d expected from him, this wasn’t it. A proposal? After he’d been silent for weeks?
“Is that really why you came here today?”
“Yes!”
“So why the suit and briefcase?”
“What?” He blinked and looked down at the case.
“Oh. I had to meet with the Kalamazoo police about Theo’s disappearance.
And I’ve got papers for Theo to see. It’s a copy of Isaac’s will.
He’s rewritten it to include Theo as his grandchild.
Plus some other stuff about his father, if he wants to see it. ”
Becca blinked, struggling to sort out the ramifications of his words. Mostly she decided she didn’t care, though she managed a simple, “Oh. Okay.”
Carl nodded. “Great. So, um, that’s good. But what about the other thing? The marriage thing?”
The marriage thing? Wow, talk about being bad a proposing..
She leaned forward, touching his face with one hand. “Carl, would you please look around you at the cakes I’ve made?”
He frowned. “What?”
She gently pushed his face to the side so he could see the row of finished confections.
“A month ago, all I did was build castles to surround a princess. Big walls, towers of defense against the world of hard knocks. I needed a prince to tear down those walls. I needed someone to drag me out into the world and show me that I could be out there. I could make a difference.”
“Um, okay.” Clearly the man wasn’t getting the message.
“What do you see now?”
“I see Beauty and the Beast outside the castle kicking ass. And let me tell you, Beauty looks pretty hot there with your eyes and hair, not to mention the leather ninja gear.”
“Leather ninja…Oh, right. That’s Donny’s cake.”
“Donny’s got good taste.”
She grinned and gently pulled his gaze back to hers. “You tore down my walls, Carl. You showed me that I could not only kick ass out there, but do it safely by your side. I don’t need a castle anymore. I just need you.”
“You do?”
“I do. I love you. And if you hadn’t proposed to me, I was planning to drive up next weekend, drag you out of your cave, and make you propose.”
“You were?”
“I was.”
“Damn. I wish I’d waited. That would have been fun.”
“Shut up. I still haven’t answered you.”
He sobered immediately.
“Mr. Max—Carl Carman—it would be my greatest honor and pleasure to marry you—”
She would have said more. She would have told him how much she loved him, but she didn’t get the chance.
He was kissing her and she was wrapping herself around him.
Later, she’d tell him about the property she was in the process of buying.
The storefront perfect for a new bakery right on the main street of downtown Gladwin.
She’d explain that Stacy was going to take over the Kalamazoo place while she and Theo relocated up north with him.
She’d already checked out the school system and set up a schedule for moving her life north.
She just hadn’t expected that she would be moving into his home rather than an apartment nearby.
She’d tell him all those things later. Right now, all she wanted to do was to kiss him. And a whole lot more. For the rest of their lives.
“You can’t know how very much I love you,” Carl said when they separated enough to breathe. “I’ve been going crazy trying to figure out a way to force you into my life.”
“All you had to do was ask.”
He winced. “I’m such an idiot.”
She laughed and pressed her mouth to his again. “That’s okay,” she said a few thousand kisses later. “I love you all the more for it.”
“Not nearly as much as I love you.”